Hope: Romans 5:1-11. Verse 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Some say Faith is a leap into dark! Faith is acting on the facts. Christian hope is similar. Life may disappoint but not Christian hope. The hope that God brings will not disappoint us. Why?
1]. God’s resource is with-in us. God’s love has been poured into our hearts.
Verse 5 “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. We have our assurance from God on the inside. There had to be substance in the deal before any change could occur. God’s Holy Spirit comes and makes his home in us. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) How easily we loose heart, due to simple changes in circumstances. God presence, God’s power and God’s purpose are not changed by circumstances. We have this resource in us. It rises above circumstances. Always God is there and the Honly Spirit is with in us.
2]. The hope that God supplies will not disappoint us because it is due to God’s faithfulness – it is founded on God’s love. It is a hope based on what God has accomplished in Jesus. Seek first the Kingdom. Consider the lilies. God can deliver. When I rely on my own strength even for sometimes the simplest things I often fail. Trusting in our own strength will hold only disappointment in the end. Everything else gives no guarantees but God will supply all our needs. Robert Burns once said, “They never sought in vain that sought the Lord aright.” The hope that God supplies will never let us down.
3]. Christian hope is fixed on achieving God’s purpose and nothing else. It is fashionable to preach a sort of prosperity theology. Trust God and everything will turn out right. Well it is self evident that that is not so. There is an Arabian proverb that says ” All sunshine is what makes the dessert”. Look what happened to Jesus. Peter, James, David Isaiah, Elijah, All have had great anguish at belong to and serving God. Sacrifice and suffering are as normal for the Christian as they are for anyone else. With the exception that God’s hope gives us a confidence to keep going on knowing that the future is in his hands and all will be well. But it is hope that is fixed on achieving God’s purpose. God wants his family all moving together in the one direction.
God executed that plan when Jesus came as a human being into our history. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, Gal 4:4 God didn’t stand off from afar handing down good ideas, he came among us in the form of Jesus. Jesus was a man with a mission. People pin their hopes on strange heroes. Take Superman. Why would you rely on a man who puts his underpants on over his trousers! He was not a super hero but he was the saviour. God sent his son who won our rescue.
God requires us to change to his purposes and come under his lordship. Under his hand we have the effects and the results of Hope. When by the power of the Spirit we let God pour his love into our hearts and we allow our lives to be moved by him then we know a hope that will always sustain us. Nothing is like the hope that comes as we follow the way God has for us for God’s Hope will not disappoint us.
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